1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to building structures and more particularly to a curtain wall slide clip for coupling non-load bearing curtain walls to the load bearing infrastructure of a building.
2. Description of Related Art
Many single story and multiple story buildings are constructed every year. Due to the high cost of labor and materials, every labor saving step or simplification in the construction process can result in marked savings in the cost of a building. Accordingly, efficiency and simplicity are demanded in building construction technology today as in all other technologies to yield an affordable product to the end consumer. A modern building anatomy includes a load bearing structure which supports the floors and roof of a building, and a non-load bearing outer structure, known as curtain walls, which supports the outer facing or walls of a building. More specifically, the load bearing structure comprises a skeletal arrangement of spaced apart horizontal and vertical beams securely attached together. The floor typically is a cement slab which is supported by this load bearing structure. The load bearing structure is designed such that upon loading and unloading of the floor with furniture, cabinets, equipment or other heavy items, the floor may deflect downwardly or upwardly. The non-load bearing structure or curtain wall comprises an exterior wall facing which is supported and backed by another skeletal type beam structure. The curtain wall skeletal framing members are made of relatively light weight materials, such as aluminum, and hence cannot support a heavy load.
The curtain wall must be linked to the load bearing structure and floor to hold the walls in their upright vertical position but without the load bearing structure or floor transferring any weight to the curtain wall during normal deflections of the floor. This is accomplished by curtain wall slide clips. Curtain wall clips while securing the floor structure and the wall structure in alignment also allow the floor to freely slide up or down along the curtain wall framing members such that the floor transfers no vertical pressure on the curtain wall. The walls of the building therefore will not buckle due to deflections of the floor which might cause permanent and expensive damage to the building.
Several types of curtain wall slide clips have evolved over the years in an effort to provide a coupling mechanism for securing curtain walls to a building load bearing structure and floors. One such clip is an L-shaped metal clip having an elongated slot traversely disposed within one of the legs, the other leg being solid (known in the industry as vertical movement clip). The solid leg is welded to a horizontal metal support angle which extends along the edge of a cement floor slab, while the other leg is bolted to a curtain wall framing stud. This curtain wall slide clip, however, is difficult to use on webbed curtain wall studs which have a plurality of holes therein along the length of the stud. In such a case, if the floor slab happens to align with such a hole, the hole typically must be covered with a plate and the curtain wall slide clip attached to the plate. This procedure is both labor intensive and time consuming adding unnecessary steps and expense to a building.
Another curtain wall slide clip structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,391, Schroeder includes an L-shaped metal clip having a slot therein that extends longitudinally through a first leg and into a second leg. The slot is fit over the lip of a C-shaped curtain wall stud and the first leg is welded to the peripheral edge of a metal support angle along the edge of a cement floor slab. This particular curtain wall slid clip structure is limited to use with C-shaped curtain wall studs. Another disadvantage of this particular slide clip is that the floor slab and curtain wall stud must be substantially adjacently located. If there is a significant space between the floor slab and curtain wall stud, a metal shim may be needed to be affixed therebetween to bring the two structures close enough together to use this slide clip. This extra procedure can be expensive and time consuming.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,400, Slager discloses a square C-shaped slide clip having a slot through the back portion of the clip. The slot is fit over the lip of a C-shaped curtain wall stud and the back of the clip is welded to a peripheral edge of the floor slab metal support angle. As with the above described curtain wall slide clip, the use of this particular clip is limited to C-shaped curtain wall studs and has limited horizontal adjustability which may require the use of shims if the curtain wall stud and floor slab are not substantially aligned.
It would therefore be an advancement in the art to provide a simple slide clip structure that eliminates the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.